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Self-harming among children 'rises by 70% in two years'

Self-harming among children as young as 10 has risen by 70% in the past two years, according to The Times (£).

According to NHS figures released to the newspaper, children aged between 10 and 14 treated in hospital after deliberately hurting themselves had risen by more than 2,700 since 2012.

Scourge of self-harming by young at 'record level' Credit: PA

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns and media at the charity YoungMinds, said that the online world in which children were growing up had fuelled the high levels of self-harm. “It is the pressures of the modern world and some of these pressures are unprecedented", she said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “We have invested £3 million in a website called MindEd which ­supports anyone working with children to spot the signs of mental health problems as early as possible.”